The Life of Caleb Bingham. Jean G

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 1943 The life of Caleb Bingham. Jean G. Yereance University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Yereance, Jean G., "The life of Caleb Bingham." (1943). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 2706. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/2706 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. * UMASS/AMHERST * Hi ill; ill 1 Hi II 1 ! HI! nlil 11 312066 0319 1621 3 FIVE COLLEGE DEPOSITORY THE LIFE OF CALEB BINGHAM mm aaiwm*-. YEREANCE - 1943 THE LIFE OF CALEB BINGHAM .. •? BY JEAN G. YEHEANCE A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree Massachusetts State College 1943 TABLE OF CONTENTS iii - TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Table of Contents • ..iii List of Illustrations. iv Introduction. 2 CHAPTER I-The Youth of Caleb Bingham .... 5 CHAPTER II-Boston and the Bingham School ... 16 CHAPTER III-Bingham and the Boston Public Schools. 31 CHAPTER IV-The Bookstore and Social, Religious, and Political Activities. 57 CHAPTER V-Early American Textbooks. 80 CHAPTER VI-Grammars and Spellers. 90 CHAPTER VII-Readers.114 CHAPTER VIII — Other Books.138 CHAPTER IX-Conclusion.152 APPENDIX A-French Letter written by Bingham • 159 APPENDIX B-Rules and Regulations of the Association of Boston Booksellers • 160 APPENDIX C-List of Books presented by Bingham to the Town of Salisbury.165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 168 iv - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Map of Boston in 1769 . 17 Title Page of The Young Lady's Accidence ..... 96 Page from The Child* s Companion.110 Title Page of the American Preceptor.120 Page from the American Preceptor.123 Title Page of An Astronomical and Geographical Catechism. 140 THE LIFE OF CALEB BINGHAM Introduction There are very few persons living today to whom the name Caleb Bingham means anything} yet a century and a half ago it was familiar to schoolchildren throughout the United States. He was known chiefly as a teacher and as the author of textbooks which were used extensively in this country. So short is the human memory, however, that all but the barest traces of the life and work of this man have disappeared. What has remained are copies of his textbooks, brief family and official records, and a short memoir written in 1850 by his loyal friend and associate, ¥/illiam B. Fowle. Caleb Bingham is usually given a paragraph or two in books dealing with education in the early days of the American nation, but he deserves more than this. Through his textbooks he had a direct effect upon the educational methods and the subject matter of many American elementary schools for several generations} through his own teaching he influenced for over twelve years the many children in his care} and largely through his efforts the Boston school system was reformed. A man who has been as important and as influential as Caleb Bingham does not deserve to be forgotten. His - 3 - educational theories and activities should be studied for the light which they can shed upon early American educa¬ tion and for any suggestions which may be of use today. Because education is a social thing in which the whole life and personality of the educator is a vital factor, one should have a complete picture of the man. This I have attempted to do, to show Caleb Bingham not solely as a teacher, but as a man whose varied activities in¬ fluenced the important part which he played in the educational development of our country. CHAPTER I THE YOUTH OF CALEB BINGHAM Chapter I The Youth of Caleb Bingham Salisbury is a picturesque little town lying among small lakes and mountains in the very northwestern corner of Connecticut. Although there are some industries located there, it is primarily an agricultural district, and the population of the town is today only 2,767.^* The first settlers of Salisbury were Dutchmen who came over from the valley of the Hudson and Englishmen who found the eastern part of Connecticut becoming too crowded for their tastes 5 and by the year 1740 there were about sixteen families, probably not over one hundred people, living there. In the following year, o the town was incorporated. At this time the Indians were still active in this areaj and, though there were no actual conflicts, the frontiersmen attended church fully armed, and a guard was stationed at the door. Even as late as 1742 there were disputes with the Indians as to land claims in Salisbury, and one Daniel Edwards was appointed to purchase from the Indians two 1. Workers of the Federal Writers' Project, Connecticut, p. 419. 2. Historical Collections Relating to the Town of Salisbury, p. 132. 3. Ibid., p. 127* - 6 - square miles at the northeast corner of the town in ex- A change for two blankets. The Indians gradually disappeared, however, and the town grew rapidly. In 1755, the taxable estate amounted to £9988. 4s- 6d. and a year later the popu- g lation was estimated at 1100. By 1774, there were 1,936 white and forty-four colored inhabitants.^ It was in this little country town, still almost in the frontier stage of development, that Caleb ' Q Bingham was born, probably on the 15th of March, 1757. He came of sturdy English stock. Thomas Bingham had migrated from Sheffield, England to America in 1660 - at the age of eighteen - and had finally settled in Windham, Connecticut in 1671.4 5 6 7 8 9 The land records of the 4. Samuel Church, A Historical Address, p. 12. 5. Ibid., p. 20. 6. Historical Collections, p. 132. 7. Samuel Church, op. cit., p. 21. 8. T.A* Bingham in The Bingham Family in America gives Caleb's date of birth as either March 15, 1767 or April 18, 1760. The cause of this confusion is not clear. All other authorities (Fowle, Chapman, D.N.B.) give the 1757 date. The geneology is also uncertain of the date of his death, but Fowle sets it definitely. 9. C«D. Bingham, The Bingham Geneology, p. 3. - 7 - town of Salisbury show that on the 11th of December, 1745, Jabez Bingham (probably Thomas’s grandson) of Windham County was granted 250 acres in Salisbury “near Thomas Knowles Grant and land of Elias Reed of Stamford”. The “consideration” was £520.1(^ Three of Jabez Bingham’s sons came to Salisbury and lived on this land under the mountain. Caleb Bingham was probably born here, for it was not until after his birth that his father, Daniel, the fourth son of Jabez bought a farm about three miles north of Salisbury between the beautiful Y/ashinee and Washining Lakes.1- On his mother’s side, Caleb was a descendant of Roger Conant, who came from England to Salem in 1624 to promote the settlement of the new country. His son Exercise had two sons, Josiah and Caleb, and moved to Connecticut. Caleb's youngest daughter, Hannah, married Daniel Bingham12 (probably in 1745)13 and came with him to Salisbury in 1750. As was customary in those days, the family of Daniel and Hannah Bingham was large* there were at least 3.0. Historical Collections, p. 27. 11. Church, op. cit., p. 79. 12. W.B. Fowle, Memoir of Caleb Bingham, p. 325. 13. T.A. Bingham, op. cit. i p. 321. - 8 - five boys and two girls who lived, and several more children died in infancy.1^ The Binghams were well known in the vicinity, and one historian has stated: "Of the Binghams it was once said, that they and their kindred constituted half of the population in the northern section of the town."16 Caleb was the sixth child and second son of Daniel* It is not difficult to imagine the type of childhood that he enjoyed at the farm* for with only two sons in the family there would be many chores and odd jobs to be done. The harder work was probably left to the older boy, Daniel Jr., however, because Caleb seems to have been a rather delicate child. His sisters recalled that "Caleb was a slender boy, while his brother Daniel was unusually robust."16 This early indication is signifi¬ cant, for throughout his life he had rather frequent lapses into ill-health and never seemed to be particular¬ ly strong. Daniel was seven years older than Caleb, and this fact, together with his rather poor health, probably caused the younger boy to resort frequently to 14. Historical Collections, passim. 15. Church, op. cit., p. 79. 16. Quoted in Fowle, op. cit., p. 325. - 9 - his books during his leisure rather than to the more strenuous games of the older boys. His youth was happy, however, and he had the type of affection for his native town that usually comes only from pleasant associations. Fowle states: "The homestead came into the possession of Caleb, whose local attachment induced him, much against his interest and the advice of his family, to buy out the other heirs, and erect a somewhat expensive house adjoin¬ ing the old mansion in which he had spent his youth.nl7 Caleb's early education was probably obtained at home and at the village school, but there are no records to prove this fact. There undoubtedly was a school in Salisbury, however, for Connecticut had required town schools for some years, and in 1750 had enacted a school law requiring that: "Towns of 70 families, having but one ecclesiastical society and ecclesiastical societies that have 70 families shall maintain, at least, one good school for eleven months of the year.

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